Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise

By Henriette Thompson

With World AIDS Day in the news (December 1st), I recalled Neusta – we met in May 2001 while I was visiting World Vision-supported programs in Rushwa district, western Tanzania, in Africa. She was a budding artist; while the adults talked, Neusta took the paper and crayons we gave her and drew a lovely picture of a lady with bright clothes and long hair.

Neusta’s future was cut tragically and unnecessarily short. She never reached her 10th birthday – she died of AIDS just five months after we met. Her parents’ had already died from AIDS and she lived with her grandmother and two older brothers. Neusta had to drop out of grade 2 at the age of 9 – open skin sores and diarrhea, the symptoms of full-blown AIDS, prevented her from attending school. This child, who with her drawing skills may well have become an illustrator or graphic artist, was no match for a disease fuelled by poverty.

In 2005, more than 500,000 girls and boys like Nuesta have died. This brings the total number of child deaths in sub-Saharan Africa to 2.4 million. How did it come to this?

One month after my 2001 visit with Neusta, world heads of State and government representatives gathered at the United Nations for the first time to recognize that AIDS is a global crisis requiring global action. A ‘Declaration of Commitment’ signaled to governments that urgency would be required to address the devastation of the HIV pandemic with leadership, honesty and action.

$US 22 billion is needed in 2006 to reverse the AIDS spread in the developing world, by comparison a small percentage of annual global military spending.

To topple the unrelenting destruction of AIDS, we need to act and act now! We need to conduct campaigns with strong prevention messages, reduce stigma, build health infrastructures, provide necessary resources, and ensure treatment, care and respect for people living with HIV and AIDS.

Although the UN Declaration calls on governments to act, everybody has to be in on the fight against HIV and AIDS – including business, labour, faith-based organizations, the media, and, importantly, people living with HIV and AIDS.

Archbishop Andrew Hutchison signals to all Anglicans this month, “our church has AIDS. Our world has AIDS.” Our Primate calls us to “solidarity, to love, to compassion, to justice.”

The Anglican Church of Canada is taking on its share of this important battle. In May 2003, the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund approved an HIV/AIDS initiative called ‘Partnership for Life’. Its goal is to raise $1 million to support a rollback of HIV/AIDS.

“I call all Anglicans in Canada to rise to the challenge,” writes the Primate. He proposes that we raise our awareness; that we urge our government to support AIDS prevention and treatment; that we pledge our monthly support; that we pray for development partners and all people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.

Let’s stop AIDS. Let’s keep our promise to bright, energetic children, like Neusta, who do not have to die.

Please visit PWRDF’s Partnership for Life web site to learn more: www.partnershipforlife.ca